1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video/audio alarm processing method and apparatus for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system. In particular, the present invention relates to a video/audio alarm processing method and apparatus for a base station manager based on a workstation whereby the base station manager can process trouble state data of base station controllers and base stations, and produce video and audio alarms in accordance with the grade of the trouble state data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a mobile radio communication system, a call message including the identification number of a calling mobile unit which attempts a call through a call control channel of a base station is transmitted to a called mobile unit, and a speech path is provided between the calling and called mobile units if a response is received from the called mobile unit.
However, in case of performing the call communications utilizing the mobile radio communication protocol regulated by Electronic Industries Association (EIA), the mobile unit may fail to receive the call message transmitted from the base station in a special condition, and thus the call communications between the terminating and originating mobile units may not be performed. Also, troubles of the function and connection/disconnection of circuit boards which constitutes the base station controller or the base station system, troubles of the physical paths through which the data communications are performed, or troubles caused by the connection/disconnection of various kinds of cables may occur.
In order to monitor such system troubles, the base station manager in a mobile radio communication system is provided with a trouble processing block for receiving the trouble state data from the respective base station controllers and base stations affiliated in the base station manager and outputting a trouble state message to a display screen provided in the workstation, and an audio alarm processing device for processing and outputting an audio alarm to a loudspeaker in the workstation.
Specifically, in order to monitor the trouble state of the base station controllers and base stations during the system operation, the conventional audio alarm processing device outputs the trouble state message provided from the base station manager to the display screen, and processes the audio alarm to drive the loudspeaker in the base station manager.
However, the conventional audio alarm processing device has the drawback that since it processes and outputs the audio alarm to the loudspeaker, it is difficult to identify the grade of the current trouble state of the system. It is also difficult to monitor the system trouble state at a remote place far apart from the base station manager.
Also, a base station manager may be provided with no loudspeaker in accordance with the kind of the workstation, and the monitoring of the system trouble state cannot be accurately achieved by such a base station manager having no loudspeaker.
Meanwhile, apparatuses for displaying the video alarm for the trouble state of the base station controllers and base stations with processing an audio alarm have been proposed. These apparatuses have the problems that separate constituent elements should be added, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a video/audio alarm processing method and apparatus for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a video/audio alarm processing method and apparatus for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system which can identify the grade of the trouble state of the base stations and base station controllers, and inform the trouble state to a user visibly and audibly in accordance with the identified grade of the trouble state.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a video/audio alarm processing method and apparatus for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system whereby the trouble state of the respective systems can be easily monitored from various remote places besides the place where the base station manager is located.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims thereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the video/audio alarm processing method for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system for receiving and processing data transmitted from a plurality of base station controllers and base stations as video and audio alarms comprises the steps of converting the data received from the base station controllers and base stations into parallel data and storing the converted data so that trouble state data of the base station controllers and base stations is classified by grades, judging whether the trouble state data exists or not in the stored data, and if it is judged that the trouble state data exists, producing the video and audio alarms in accordance with the classified grade of the trouble state data.
It is preferable that the grade of the video and audio alarms corresponding to the grade of the trouble state data is classified into emergent, important, and general alarms, respectively. Also, the video alarm may be classified by colors, i.e., red, yellow, and green according to the grade of the trouble state data.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video/audio alarm processing apparatus for a base station manager in a mobile radio communication system including an interworking processor board assembly for receiving and processing data transmitted from a plurality of base station controllers and base stations as video and audio alarms, the interworking processor board assembly comprising a trouble state detecting section for receiving the data of a predetermined number of bits transmitted from the base station controllers and the base stations and detecting existence of trouble state data, a video/audio control section for generating control clocks of a predetermined speed and control signals for the process of the video and audio alarms in accordance with an input of the detected trouble state data, a data transmitting section for converting and transmitting the data received from the trouble state detecting section in accordance with the control clock and the control signal generated from the video/audio control section, a plurality of video/audio alarm sections for producing video and audio alarms in accordance with a trouble state grade of the trouble state data, an interface section for interfacing the data transmitted from the data transmitting section to the video/audio alarm sections and interfacing message data responding to the transmitted data outputted from the video/audio alarm sections, and a data receiving section for converting and transmitting to the trouble state detecting section the responding message received through the interface section in accordance with the control clock and the control signal generated from the video/audio control section.
Preferably, the trouble state detecting section comprises a central processing unit and its peripheral device for receiving and processing the data transmitted from the base station controllers and base stations, a data buffer for buffering the data received from the central processing unit and the responding message received from the data receiving section, and a transmission data detecting unit for detecting whether the trouble state data exists in the data buffered by the data buffer.
Preferably, the video/audio control section comprises a transmission/reception control unit for generating a control signal for controlling transmission/reception of the trouble state data if the existence of the trouble state data is detected by the trouble state detecting section, a transmission/reception clock generating unit for generating transmission and reception clocks of a predetermined speed in accordance with the control signal from the transmission/reception control unit, and a loopback control unit for monitoring an operating state of the video/audio alarm sections through the interface section and providing a detected result to the data receiving section.
Preferably, the data transmitting section comprises a transmission buffer for buffering the data received from the trouble state detecting section in accordance with the control signal from the video/audio control section, a transmission latch for latching the data buffered by the transmission buffer in accordance with the control signal from the video/audio control section, and a parallel/serial conversion unit for converting the data received from the transmission latch into serial data in accordance with the transmission clock provided from the video/audio control section and providing the converted serial data to the interface section.
Preferably, the data receiving section comprises a serial/parallel conversion unit for converting the responding message received from the interface section and the operating state data of the video/audio alarm sections received from the video/audio control section into parallel data in synchronization with the reception clock from the video/audio control section, a receiving latch for latching the converted parallel data for a predetermined time in accordance with the control signal from the video/audio control section, and a receiving buffer for buffering the latched parallel data in accordance with the control signal from the video/audio control section and outputting the buffered data to the trouble state detecting section as state information of the video/audio alarm sections.
According to the video/audio alarm processing apparatus for a base station manager for managing the trouble state of the base station controllers and base stations, the system trouble state is classified by grades and then informed to the user as the video and audio alarms, resulting in that the user can easily identify the trouble state grade of the respective systems and thus take the necessary process according to the identified trouble state grade.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.